I like the vehicles, too. It's like a combination of TMNT and The Road Warrior. We used to have what we called "The Battle Bus" which was a very heavily armed and armored "yellow school bus". The Battle Bus is one of my fondest memories from any game.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Monday, March 26, 2018 - 11:46 am: Edit

A new set of updates has been posted to the Coming Releases page of Catalyst Game Labs' BattleTech website, with news on various re-prints and new products set for release later in 2018 - to include a new pair of starter box sets, an updated "Commanders Edition" of the core Alpha Strike ruleook; new print runs of the core rulebooks for "classic" BT (starting with Total Warfare); and the aforementioned Shattered Fortress sourcebook now set to kick off the "IlClan" storyline.

By Steve Zamboni (Szamboni) on Friday, March 30, 2018 - 07:13 pm: Edit

If you grew up with the Avalon Hill games, finding these sites was like Christmas. All the Generals, and the Squad Leaders, all the variants and maps...

The General Magazine Project

View From The Trenches

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Sunday, April 22, 2018 - 07:38 pm: Edit

Paradox Interactive have posted an intro cinematic for the upcoming BattleTech PC game, which offers glimpses at some of the key moments in the future history (of the 80s) that define the BT universe.

By Jeffrey George Anderson (Jeff) on Sunday, April 22, 2018 - 10:06 pm: Edit

Screwball question...

Palladium, in its vast "Rifts" game, has something called the "Three Galaxies Dimension." Many of the character classes available for a campaign there are officers on starships.

I know SJG has an RPG supplement for running a GURPS game in the SFU; what about a SFU RPG using the Palladium mechanics?

By Jon Murdock (Xenocide) on Sunday, April 22, 2018 - 11:34 pm: Edit

Palladium is not known for licensing its system and the system is really a relic of the early AD&D era. Palladium mostly survives on its unique settings. Palladium is probably also in financial trouble right now with the failure of their Robotech kickstarter and many of their die-hard fans are turning on them out of a sense of betrayal so the company's future is up in the air.

The character creation system is also unlikely to work well in the SFU.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Thursday, May 10, 2018 - 09:34 am: Edit

Question: anyone else out here also playing the venerable VGA Planets (in its current incarnation at Planets Nu)?

By Matthew G Lawson (Mglawson) on Tuesday, July 10, 2018 - 12:02 pm: Edit

Has anyone played the Spartan Game "Uncharted Seas"? Out of print now. Specifically, does anyone have things they would like to part with if they played it, but wish to thin down their collection!

Matt

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - 12:11 am: Edit

I mentioned Squad Leader (ASL), as a game I would play again (it can be interesting). However, I just remembered the military game, Tacops (a good military simulation game).

By Michael Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - 03:13 am: Edit

And "Third Reich" took many an hour of my youth.

There used to be in depth articles about how to play that game...

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Saturday, July 28, 2018 - 12:01 pm: Edit

For anyone heading to this year's GenCon, Catalyst Game Labs are set to feature a range of new BattleTech items there: to include the new introductory box sets - for which they will be running a demo on a 10 foot by 10-foot battle map, with a set of nine upscaled BattleMech miniatures to use on it - plus a pair of new novellas set in the time frame covered by the sourcebook Shattered Fortress, which will itself be available for the first time at the convention. There will also be a what's-up-with-BattleTech (and with other non-BT games from CGL) event on the Thursday evening.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Saturday, August 04, 2018 - 11:17 pm: Edit

The PDF edition of Shattered Fortress has recently been posted; this volume advances the BattleTech timeline through to 3150, and sets the ground work for the era-capping IlClan sourcebook to follow.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Thursday, February 28, 2019 - 01:42 pm: Edit

A new BattleTech novel, Forever Faithful, has been released both electronically and as a print-on-demand product. This volume takes a look at the events surrounding the aftermath of the fall of Clan Smoke Jaguar, from the perspective of two rival ex-Jaguars with divergent visions of a would-be afterlife for the survivors of their defeated Clan.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Thursday, June 13, 2019 - 11:21 pm: Edit

The folks at Catalyst Game Labs are set to release a PDF/Print On Demand sourcebook for House Arano, the Periphery faction featured in the BATTLETECH PC game. This will be a first for CGL, in terms of publishing a faction sourcebook via POD.

Also, a Kickstarter campaign for a new box set covering the Clan Invasion era will launch next month.

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Saturday, July 27, 2019 - 12:10 pm: Edit

Sad day for wargamers - Richard Berg has passed away. Designer of over 140 games (mostly wargames, for SPI, GMT, and Avalon Hill among others), he also had quite the life outside that. Never met him, myself, but have certainly played quite a number of his games as I'm sure many of us have.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Thursday, June 11, 2020 - 01:34 pm: Edit

Catalyst Game Labs has recently posted a June 2020 "State of the Game" for BattleTech, outlining a set of upcoming products. While many of these are building towards the long-awaited IlClan sourcebook, others will take a look at more far-flung regions - to include a new Operational Turning Points file to be set in the coreward Deep Periphery.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Saturday, August 08, 2020 - 07:43 am: Edit

The PDF for BattleTech Operational Turning Points: Hanseatic Crusade was released yesterday, which looks at a conflict set in the year 3140 which takes place between Clan Goliath Scorpion and the Hanseatic League.

There'll be a set of four additional PDFs covering this conflict uploaded over the next month or so: Touring the Stars: Braunschweig, Spotlight On: Schmidt’s Petraries, Touring the Stars: Valencia, and Spotlight On: Hellion Keshik.

Although, I am somewhat disappointed at the result of this campaign. I had been hoping that the Hansa would be covered in more detail at some point, and... well, I suppose one should be careful what one wishes for.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Thursday, December 10, 2020 - 09:52 am: Edit

Catalyst Game Labs have posted a countdown site for Hour of the Wolf, a new novel which, on the first of January 31512021, will mark the end of BattleTech's Dark Age era and usher in the new era of the ilClan.

Speaking of which, the ilClan sourcebook, which is set to cover the events to be dramatized in Hour of the Wolf, is (finally) due to be released in 2021.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Friday, January 01, 2021 - 07:43 pm: Edit

It's a New Year, and a new era of BattleTech as well: the Hour of the Wolf novel mentioned in my last post is now available.

Not since MechWarrior: Dark Age was first published has the BT timeline moved into a new universe era; and not for almost as long has the story first been advanced via new fiction, rather than through a new sourcebook.

Of course, I won't spoil what happens - but I would advise waiting until reading the final chapter before passing judgment on what the era of the ilClan might have to offer going forward.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Tuesday, March 23, 2021 - 02:39 pm: Edit

GOOD NEWS for some wargamers!

Clark Construction Group LLC, Bethesda, Maryland, is awarded a $78,981,000 firm-fixed-price construction contract for construction of the Wargaming Center at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. The contract is incrementally funded with the first increment of $61,810,155 allocated at the time of award. The second increment will be funded in fiscal 2022 at $17,170,845. The contract also contains one unexercised option, which if exercised, would increase cumulative contract value to $81,265,250. The work to be performed provides for construction of a new two-story academic instruction facility to support the wargaming function at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. Work will be performed in Quantico, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by June 2023. Fiscal 2020 military construction (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $61,810,155 are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the beta.SAM.gov website with 15 proposals received. Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N40080-21-C-0005).

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Wednesday, April 21, 2021 - 10:59 pm: Edit

Anyone in central Pennsylvania, in the Williamsport area? My kid brother is working on a Korean War game and is at the point he needs some play-testers.


Garth L. Getgen

By Mark Ewbank (Markewbank) on Tuesday, May 18, 2021 - 07:33 pm: Edit

So I was going through the gaming shelves and pulled out Battlewagon (which I see is still available in the store!). Looking forward to playing another (sadly, solo) River Platte scenario. Re-reading the rules, I thought, "This game cries out for automation". Does anyone have the programming skills and desire to write a computer program to handle Battlewagon? If so, interest could be measured by doing a Kickstarter campaign...

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Sunday, May 30, 2021 - 12:49 pm: Edit

I was just on the Steve Jackson Warehouse 23 site to buy a few Munchkins items my local B&M store can't get, and I happen to notice OGRE Battlefields.

When I looked at the description, it had a red flag saying "One Left In Stock." That flag now reads "Out Of Stock." Sorry, but not sorry. ;-)


Garth L. Getgen

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Friday, July 09, 2021 - 02:30 pm: Edit

As mentioned further up the thread, the BattleTech novel Hour of the Wolf has officially introduced the era of the ilClan.

The actual IlClan sourcebook - which is set to cover the events dramatized in Hour of the Wolf - seems due, at long last, to be published in August.

Notably, however, it won't be long to wait before the broader fallout from those events is to be shown: the first "post-IlClan" sourcebook, Tamar Rising, is due in September. It should move things as far as mid-3152 in its chosen portion of the Inner Sphere.

-----

On another BT-related note, has anyone here taken a look at Alpha Strike: Commander's Edition?

As a game system, Alpha Strike has somewhat of an unorthodox design history.

During the FASA era of BattleTech, one of "classic" BT's companion games was BattleForce, in which each counter represented a lance (or Star or Century or Level II) of BattleMechs; each 'Mech was presented in a highly abstracted form, as opposed to the more SSD-like Record Sheets used elsewhere.

When the BattleForce rules were much later incorporated into the Strategic Operations expansion to the Total Warfare edition of "classic" BT, a hybrid "Quick-Strike" spinoff was also offered where the abstract forms of BattleMechs at the BF scale were instead used to represent individual 'Mech miniatures. Some time after that, Quick-Strike was upgraded to "full" game status, to be reborn as Alpha Strike.

The first "true" edition of Alpha Strike had two volumes: AS proper, plus the Alpha Strike Companion. The current Commander's Edition of AS includes most, but not quite all, of the added rules which had previously been offered separately in the Companion, making it the closest thing to a one-stop-shop for anyone looking to try out this game system.

Also, the abstract 'Mech representations from the original BattleForce era are now presented as Alpha Strike Unit Cards; a large number of them are provided in "low toner" form on CGL's Master Unit List website.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Wednesday, July 14, 2021 - 03:31 pm: Edit

I'm entertaining the idea of doing an Ogre/G.E.V. game at a nearby store, but using the SFM maps.